Virginia

Over the last eight years, Claudia Booker has served over 600 birthing women in the Washington D.C. area, and works in several other capacities. She is certified as a doula through DONA and ICTC, a La Leche League certified breastfeeding peer counselor, a CAPPA certified childbirth educator, and, most recently, a Certified Professional Midwife in the state of Virginia. However, she was first an attorney, and now uses her legal skills to remain active in social justice issues in midwifery, serve on D.C.’s Infant and Child Mortality Review Committee, and act as her state’s representative for ICTC. While working as a doula and midwife assistant in 2004, Booker founded a volunteer labor support program at The Family Birth and Health Center. It was the first program of its kind in the area and helps some of the poorest citizens of Washington D.C. The founding of this program earned her the American Association of Birth Centers Community Service Award in 2006. Booker now owns and operates Birthing Hands, L.L.C. Even though she is now a CPM, she continues to offer doula services to her community. Learn more about Claudia and her work athttp://www.birthinghandsdc.com/.

This Midwife of the Week post was written by Valerie Meharg. It originated on FoMM’s Facebook page and is archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

When she was just 20 years old, Brynne Potter began attending births as an apprentice with the philosophy that “if we can start babies off right, maybe they won’t have so much healing to do.” Since then, Brynne has participated in a wide range of midwifery related pursuits. She is a true friend to the cause and served as the Legislative Coordinator to the Commonwealth Midwives Alliance whose aim it was to pass a bill allowing licensure in Virginia. The bill passed in late 2005. After seeing her lobbying work in Virginia, the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) recruited her to sit on their board and share her knowledge and experience with other states seeking licensure. Brynne has made great innovations in the business side of midwifery as well. She designed the electronic charting software, Private Practice, which provides an easy to use database for recording all aspects of client care. Brynne Potter’s excellent video series on shared decision making can be found here: http://narm.org/shareddecisionmaking/.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!